


Breathe

by astraplain



Category: Glee
Genre: Gen, Not Blaine or Klaine Friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 02:19:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5767534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astraplain/pseuds/astraplain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fix-it fic inspired by Santana's rant at Kurt in season 6.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathe

Kurt’s packing to return to New York, every movement sharp-edged and painful. This room. This house. This town. These people. If he stays here much longer he’ll suffocate.

His clothes aren’t folded, his personal items tossed in without care. If anything is forgotten, he’ll consider it lost.

Desperate times. Desperate measures.

He would have been too proud for this once. Too sure of friendships that proved false, love that turned poisonous. Convinced that family would always be there.

He passes the closed door to the room that had once been Finn’s. Kurt has no idea what’s in there now, and no intention of looking.

He should leave more than a note on the kitchen table but it’s all he can manage. He’s barely spoken to his father or step-mother since their family fractured.

He’d been hoping to change that while he was here. He’d been hoping to help his parents. Help Rachel. Reconcile with Blaine. Always giving away little pieces of himself that his friends are so ready to take. 

In return he gets…

He gets hands turned into grasping claws, demanding more. Words turned into knives that carve him open and mock what’s left of the carcass. 

Kurt’s hands shake as he opens the front door. He’s already called a cab.

The door closes behind him, oddly hollow and metallic and he walks to the curb without looking back. While he waits, he uses his phone to block his former Glee friends and resets the privacy settings on his social media sites. If it wasn’t for a few New York friends and co-workers, he’d wipe the phone clean and start over.

The cab arrives and Kurt settles in for the ride. The tightness in his chest eases a little but he doesn’t relax.

It’s not until he’s back in New York, standing in his kitchen, methodically shredding, breaking or burning every memento of his former fiance and glee club that he feels like he can take a deep breath. The acrid air that fills his lungs feels refreshing and he breathes it in.

They don’t make it easy. Of course they don’t. Finally, weeks after he walked away, a package arrives without a note. Finn’s letterman jacket is inside.

Kurt gives it a place of honor in his closet, but it wasn’t an apology and he doesn’t forgive. He closes the matter and moves on, finishing his internship in London.

For months he’s surrounded by people who know nothing about his past. The constriction in his chest is nearly gone.

By the time he returns to New York for his final year at NYADA Kurt has new friends and new memories. McKinley and glee club have faded into the past. Not gone but no longer worth more than a passing thought.

Every morning when he wakes, he inhales deeply…

And breathes.

::end::


End file.
